The financial literacy grade for high schools in Florida: B

When it comes to personal finance education, the state of Florida is making solid progress.

As part of our ongoing coverage of financial literacy, we’re taking a close look at what the experts say about how well each state is doing in teaching high-schoolers about personal finance and economics.

“Grade B implies that the state is doing a fine job of providing financial literacy. However, the fact that a state requires personal finance instruction as a graduation requirement is not enough. The amount of instruction required should be a component of the grading process. For each Grade B state, the Center has looked at the educational standards of the required course and has estimated the amount of time allocated to the topic of personal finance based on the Carnegie unit system of 120 hours of instruction for a full-year course and 60 hours of instruction for a half-year course.

“Georgia requires statewide end-of- course assessments on all of its core high school courses, including economics. We received confirmation from the Division of Curriculum & Instruction and the Office of Assessment & Accountability that the economics assessment includes questions related to personal finance.”

Florida’s 2018 report card from The Council for Economic Excellence

The Council for Economic Excellence does not hand out specific grades but does measure a number of factors when looking at how a state is upholding the goal of educating young adults about money, including:

Florida requires financial education courses in high school to be offered

Florida requires that one or more of those financial education courses be taken

Florida does not require standardized testing on financial literacy

For comparison, here’s how many states and the District of Columbia hit that goal in the 2018 survey:

22 states require financial education courses in high school to be offered

17 states require that one or more of those financial education courses be taken

7 states require standardized testing on financial literacy

Overall, Florida is in a good position when it comes to educating its kids and young adults about financial literacy, as measured by the CEE, although there is room for improvement.

Across the USA, there is a lot of room for improvement in financial literacy education at the high school level

Nationwide, the Council for Economic Excellence reports in its 2018 report that there has been little increase in economic education in recent years and no growth in personal finance education.

Source: CEE. Used with permission.

“Research shows,” the CEE reports, “ that requirements are the main driver of economics and personal finance being taught in schools. CEE works with our nationwide network of affiliates to both advocate for requirements and assist in their implementation.”

As a country, we’ve seen where a lack of personal finance education can lead. Millions of Americans struggle every day with their money, living paycheck to paycheck and relying on credit cards for necessities, only to wind up deep in debt and short on hope.

Beyond that, many Americans are finding that they can’t buy homes, invest for retirement, or save for their child’s college fund because of their own student loan debt, massive car payments, and general lack of financial planning.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. A lot of the money problems Americans are facing could have been avoided if financial literacy was taught earlier, in school. That’s why we think more schools should offer financial literacy courses as part of their graduation requirements.

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